King Ghidorah: Monster Zero - The Movie
''King Ghidorah: Master of Monsters - The Motion Picture is the theatrical movie of the similarly-titled anime series. It is a retelling of the original ''Master of Monsters ''series, and as such, follows a different storyline. It holds several records in Japanese film history. Firstly, it is the longest anime film ever made, clocking in at 167 minutes. Secondly, it is the highest-grossing Japanese film (and by default, the highest-grossing anime and Godzilla film) ever made. Plot The film is split into three parts, all of which are introduced with a title card. '''Birth of an Empire' The film opens with the Big Bang, where four massive spheres are spewed forth and one eventually stops near where Venus will form. Ten billion years pass, and the solar system itself has formed. A Venusian civilization has already been built up, and it decides to tap into the power of the sphere, now stuck in the planet's core. Unfortunately, in the attempt that follows, the core becomes unstable and the surface of the planet becomes terraformed into a lifeless wasteland. Flash forward to 65 million years BC. The massive sphere, having encased itself in a giant meteor, breaks free from the Venusian surface and propells itself towards Earth and crash-lands upon it. A few days pass, and Godzillasaurus, Mothra, Boylanguirus (pre-evolution form of Anguirus), Gorosaurus, Baragon, and Rodan come upon the asteroid. Rodan accidentally breaks open the asteroid, and King Ghidorah's pre-evolution form of Cretaceous King Ghidorah appears. A battle takes place, and most of the Earth monsters are defeated and forced underground. A massive asteroid then reaches the atmopshere. Cretaceous King Ghidorah absorbs it's energy and allows the asteroid to crash upon the Earth, causing the K-T Extinction. Cretaceous King Ghidorah escapes into space, and then hears telepathic calls from an unknown source. He then follows it to Mars, where he meets Monster X, Desghidorah, and Grand King Ghidorah. Immideately recognizing them as his own kind, follows them into the reaches of space. A Gargoa and Xillen joint fleet arrive and capture the Ghidorahs. Flashforward to 1964, and the Xillens, Black Hole Planet 3 Alliens, Mysterians, Gargoans, Seatopians, Space Hunter Nebula M Aliens, and Seijin Alliance, and Yapool's faction, along with their respective kaiju armies, assemble near Saturn and angrily debate over who shall get to invade Earth. Talks break down and the Black Hole Planet 3 Aliens start hostilites by activating MechaGodzilla to attack, and a massive battle is fought. The Gargoans and Xillens, having agreed to ally with each other, summon the Ghidorahs to attack their enemies. The Ghidorahs have the upper hand quickly and the Seatopians, Mysterians, and Seijin Alliance are destroyed easily. However, Yapool's faction proves to be a challenge, and Yapool's trump card, Jumbo King, almost kills Grand King Ghidorah. Yapool also single-handedly manhandles Cretaceous King Ghidorah, while Kaiser Ghidorah (Monster X evolved) and Desghidorah are having a hard time with Yapool's agents Mazaron Man and Ace Killer. The Ghidorahs flee, and the Garoans and Xillens are soon beaten by Black Hole Planet 3 Aliens. Meanwhile, the weakened Ghidorahs flee to the outer edge of the solar system where they meet Bagan. In the battle that follows, Kaiser and Desghidorah fall in battle, and Grand King Ghidorah has to sacrifice himself to "kill" Bagan, and Cretaceous King Ghidorah is greviously wounded, and is left for dead, floating in space. Time passes, and Cretaceous King Ghidorah lands on a desolate jungle-swamp world, Zethpurge-III, where he is captured by Ultraman Bellial and Alien Raybrad. Megaguirus secretly raids their base when they take a break from studying him, and rescues Cretaceous King Ghidorah. Megaguirus tends to King Ghidorah for a while until she disappears one day. Cretaceous King Ghidorah then tracks her and finds out that Bellial and Raybrad have captured her and are torturing her into revealing his location. In the battle that follows, Cretaceous King Ghidorah is almost killed by Bellial, but then evolves to become the adult King Ghidorah, and kills Bellial and Raybrad with his new powers. He also frees Megaguirus, and they fall in love. Several months later, Megaguirus reveals to King Ghidorah that she's become pregnant. 'Once Upon A Time In Monster-Dominated Earth' 'The year is 1983. The Nebulans, having won the Great Alien War, invade Earth, with Gigan in their army. Unfortunately, their invasion, is beaten back in six months by the aggressive defence of Earth's monsters, the Earth Defence Force, and by the Ultramen. Driven to retreat, the Nebulan army retreats to the Gilese 581 system. Back on Earth, a monster named Geronimon comes with a dispute with Godzilla, leader of the Earth's monsters. Apparently, Godzilla is dissatisfied with Geronimon's leadership. Things come to a head when Geronimon's henchman Red King insults Godzilla's friend Anguirus, and Godzilla and his allies split from Geronimon, and are backed by the EDF mechs and the Ultramen. A monster named Iyrs arrives later and, having seen the seeds of dissident among the Earth's monsters, offers his services to Geronimon. Iyrs' forces launch an assault on the Ultramen, and the Second Great Kaiju War begins. Back at Zethpurge-III where King Ghidorah, the last Ghidorah is living a quiet life as the self-appointed ruler of the system, with Megaguirus and his son, Hafu. However, one day, King Ghidorah begins to fee that he must return to the Solar System to fight an being as powerful as he is, so he he leaves Zethpurge with his family and decides to travel to Earth. Meanwhile, on Jupiter, Gigan meets with the leader of the Nebulan invasion forces, Dark Lugiel. Seeing him as the fault of their failure, Gigan challenges him to a one-on-one duel for control of the remaining forces. In the battle that follows, both combatants are locked in a tense struggle for power, and it seems that Lugiel will win, until King Ghidorah arrives and browbeats Lugiel, allowing Gigan to take the final blow. Now leader of the army, Gigan, in a show of thanks, cedes control of the army to King Ghidorah. King Ghidorah later leads the army to Earth, where they choose to ally themselves with Geronimon and Iyrs. To prove this, King Ghidorah personally destroys the GDF Jager Coyote Tango and neutral, and supposedly powerful monster Cloverfield. Things don't go well at first - the initial rivalry between Iyrs and King Ghidorah is fierce, and Destoroyah seemingly deserts his allies to work for Godzilla's side. The months pass, and soon, neither side gains much of an advantage. Then, one day, Geronimon is assasinated by Iyrs, though the blame is put on King Ghidorah. In retalliation, Gigan and MechaGodzilla destroy some Geronimon's army, and then desert with the bulk of King Ghidorah's army to the other side, leaving King Ghidorah and Hafu the only ones left working for Iyrs. Then, one night, King Ghidorah confronts his rival, and he us challenged to a battle. A very close battle follows, and King Ghidorah has Hafu, hidden in the shadows, to injure Iyrs at his most vunerable. Though his enemy is not dead, King Ghidorah proclaims it a victory and leaves with his son, revealing to Iyrs that all of his factions' defections were of his idea, so that he could keep Geronimon off his scent, and sufficiently weaken his army. King Ghidorah and Hafu then leave to join the rest of their allies with Godzilla. In winter, the final battle between both factions is waged, and Godzilla's, along with King Ghidorah's faction, emerge victorious. Iyrs himself cowardly retreats, but later runs into a revived Bagan. He mockingly challenges him to battle, but Bagan declines and a mysterious, dark, being arrives, and easily destroys Iyrs. The mysterious being then orders Bagan to go forth, followed by a massive army of alien ships, some of which are carrying kaiju. '''The Greatest Evil of Them All To be added. Cast Production In 2013, production also started on the movie when the anime series began production. Originally conceived as a stock-footage film, the film's general outline was later given a redo. Unlike most anime films, or anime in general, both the English and Japanese voice acting was done before the animation was made. The film was also high on visual and special effects as well. An example of this is that it is the first film shot in TohoScope Super 70, a film format that combined TohoScope and IMAX 70mm film. Also, the film's sound was done using the extremely rare Sensurround sound system (or to be more specific, Sensurround Mod-III). For the animation, TMS Entertainment, of Akira ''fame, was brought in, with help from the equally distinguished Madhouse Entertainment, and Sunrise Studios. As inspiration, the scriptwriters watched movies that the producers thought would help them get inspired on catching the epic air the film needed. These films were the original 1954 Godzilla movie, ''Terror of MechaGodzilla, The Return of Godzilla; ''Akira Kurosawa's ''Seven Samurai, Yojimbo, Sanjuro, Ran and Kagemusha;'' Katsuhiro Otomo's ''Akira; Tomoharu Katsumata's'' Final Yamato and[[wikipedia:Arcadia_of_My_Youth| ''My Youth In Arcadia]]; Toshio Masuda's Farewell to Space Battleship Yamato ''and ''Tora! Tora! Tora!; Yoshiyuki Tomino's Metal Suit Gundam: Char's Counterattack ''and Mobile Suit Gundam F91; Haruki Kadokawa's ''Heaven and Earth; Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey; ''Cecil B. DeMille's ''The Ten Commandments; the original Star Wars ''trilogy; Sergio Leone's ''Dollars Trilogy ''and Once Upon A Time In The West;'' and Sergei Bondarchuk's Waterloo and War and Peace. Film Stats Worldwide Box Office Gross: '$1,950,000,000 '''US Box Office Gross: '$1,000,000,000 'Japanese Box Office Gross: '$750,000,000 'International (other than US/Japan) Gross: '$200,000,000 'Rotten Tomatoes.com Rating: '''95% '''IMDB Rating: '''8.8/10.0 Reception The film broke Japanese box office records. it earned $1,000,000,000 in the US, $750,000,000 in Japan, and an additional $200,000,000 worldwide against a $75,000,000 budget. This made it the first Japanese film to break the 1-billion dollar mark. It holds an 95% rating at Rotten Tomatoes. The site's consensus read: "''King Ghidorah: Master of Monsters - The Motion Picture, headed by an electrifying voice cast and acting, amazing visuals, jaw-dropping sound, an amazing score, and epic grandeur on a Kurosawan scale, is a movie as big as it's titanic antihero and worth every dollar spent - or yen, depending on which side of the Pacific you're on." When FuNimation made a poll of the Top 100 Anime Movies, the film came out at number 12, one spot below Farewell To Space Battleship Yamato ''and one spot above ''The Disappearance of Harui Suzumiyra. '' Accolades (Wins) Academy Awards * Best Picture * Best Director - Tomoharu Katsumata * Best Actor - Koichi Yamadera/Alastair Duncan (Shared) * Best Actress - Minori Chihara/Maryke Hendrikse (Shared) * Best Adapted Screenplay - Leiji Matsumoto, Hayao Miyazaki, Katshuhiro Omoto, Izo Hashimoto, Shusuke Kaneko, Rintaro, Kazuki Omori, Akira Toriyama, Hironobu Sakaguchi, Takeshi Arakawa, Yoshiyuki Tomino, Yutaka Izubuchi, Hideaki Anno/Max Borenstein, Guillermo del Toro, Steven Spielberg, George Lucas, Matt Frank, Tim Burton, J.J Abrams, Genndy Tartavosky, Quentin Tarantino, James Cameron, Sam Rami, Martin Scorsese, John Carpenter (Shared) * Best Supporting Actor - Eric Stuart/Junpei Morita (Shared) * Best Supporting Actress - Rachel Lillis/Shikuza Itou (Shared) * Best Animated Feature * Best Visual Effects * Best Score - Shoji Yamashiro, Shigeaki Saeguesa, Shin'ichiro Ikebe, Takeharu Ishimoto, Lindsey Stirling * Best Editing - Takeshi Seyama, Todd Ramsay, Sean Barton, Marcia Lucas, Duwayne Dunham, Paul Hirsch * Best Cinematography - Takao Saito, Katsuji Misawa, Richard Kline, Peter Suschitzky, Richard Chew * Best Foreign Language Film * Best Sound Cannes Film Festival * ''Palme D'Or * Prix d'interprétation féminine - ''Maryke Hendrikse/Minori Chihara (Shared) * ''Prix d'interprétation masculine - ''Alastair Duncan/Koichi Yamadera (Shared) * ''Prix de la mise en scène - Tomoharu Katsumata * Prix du scénario - Leiji Matsumoto, Hayao Miyazaki, Katshuhiro Omoto, Izo Hashimoto, Shusuke Kaneko, Rintaro, Kazuki Omori, Akira Toriyama, Hironobu Sakaguchi, Takeshi Arakawa, Yoshiyuki Tomino, Yutaka Izubuchi, Hideaki Anno/Max Borenstein, Guillermo del Toro, Steven Spielberg, George Lucas, Matt Frank, Tim Burton, J.J Abrams, Genndy Tartavosky, Quentin Tarantino, James Cameron, Sam Rami, Martin Scorsese, John Carpenter (Shared) Venice Film Festival * Gold Lion * Silver Lion - Tomoharu Katsumata * Volpi Cup - Koichi Yamadera/Alastair Duncan, Minori Chihara/Maryke Hendrikse (Shared) * Marcello Mastroianni Award - Eric Stuart/Shikuza Itou (Shared) * Special Lion - Rachel Lillis/Shikuza Itou (Shared) Quotes About the movie "This movie was ''Akira, it was, Bondarchuk's War and Peace, it was Kurosawa's Ran, Kagemusha, Leone's Once Upon A Time in the West, ''and all other epic films known the world over combined to make the biggest animated motion picture in history." "Lord knows how such a movie became such an epic. One wonders why, but in the end, nobody can answer." "Master of Monsters indeed." In-Movie "Life... I hate it." ''- King Ghidorah's first words "''How do you feel, my love?" "Power. I feel power." - The last conversation spoken in the movie, between King Ghidorah and Megaguirus "I am King Ghidorah." - King Ghidorah's aside, the last words in the movie. Other Information 'Release Dates: ' * April 26, 2015 (Japan) * June 1, 2015 (US) '''Cinematography: '''Takao Saito, Katsuji Misawa, Richard Kline, Kenji Machida '''Edited by: '''Takeshi Seyama, Todd Ramsay, Sean Barton, Marcia Lucas, Duwayne Dunham, Paul Hirsch '''Character/Kaiju Designs: Hiroyuki Kitazume, Matt Frank, Matt Allsop Mecha Designs: Gainax, Yoshinori Sayama, Matt Frank, Yutaka Izubuchi, Studio Nue, Yoshiyuki Tomino Art Director: '''Shigemi Ikeda '''Storyboards: '''Akira Toriyana, Katsushiro Otomo '''Story: Alan Dean Foster, Yōichi Onaka, Leiji Matsumoto Video Criterion Collection '''(2015) * '''Region: Region 1 * Video Type: Blu-ray * Language: 'Japanese, English * '''Format: '''70mm, Anamorphic, Widescreen, NTSC, Color, Subtitled * Other Features: ** 2.20:1 aspect ratio ** Sensurround-III audio track for both dubs ** Audio commentary by the voice actors for the Ghidorah Empire of English and Japanese dub casts ** Audio commentary featuring the scriptwriters of both dubs ** ''Trio of Terror, a subtitled interview of Koichi Yamadera, Minori Chihara, and Junpei Morita where they discuss about the movie ** 41-minute documentary on the making of the movie ** Tomino and Masuda, ''a 44-minute featurette slideshow with Toshio Masuda and Yoshiyuki Tomino with regards to their contributions on the movie, mainly mecha designs and battle scenes ** Heineken commercials made on-set ** Storyboard gallery ** Theatrical trailers and teaser trailers ** A booklet featuring a essays by Gareth Edwards and Tim Burton, an interview with Tomoharu Katsumata by Stuart Gailbraith IV, interviews and liner notes by Shoji Yamashiro, Shin'ichiro Ikebe, Shigeaki Saegusa, and autographed storyboard sketches by Akira Toriyama ** Steven Speilberg's appreciation video ** ''The History of Anime on Film, ''a 74-minute documentary by Akira Toriyama and Gareth Edwards ** A 30-minute documentary on the making of the series ** A 35-minute video piece reconstructing the movie using Akira Toriyama and Katsushiro Otomo's storyboards, called ''Storyboards of The King of Terror ** Video interview with the English dub voice actors Trivia *When the film made it's debut on April 26, 2015, it's premiere theater, Toho's Roppongi Hills Cinema, was decked out in a Godzilla-based motif to suit the movie. *The film's camera work is mainly based on Sergio Leone and Akira Kurosawa's cinematography styles - Leone's style of extreme close-ups prior to fight scenes and Kurosawa's style of wide-scale shots and frequent use of movement to express the tone and what the characters feel during the non-action scenes. *Before the film first rolled at the theater, Akira Tarakada (the narrator of the movie and the series) walked in front of the audience, and gave the following speech: " 'Monsters are born too tall, too strong, too heavy. That is their tragedy.' Those words were spoken by my good friend, the late director Ishiro Honda. When Mr. Honda said those very words, it was a testament to what he wanted to see in monsters. Not your typical, run-of-the-mill, mindless monsters, but creatures that, much like us, have their own feelings, hopes, dreams, plans, desires and schemes. This film was made not only with the hope of entertaining you and many others the world over, but to also to show all present- and all who shall see - precisely what these things really are. Not a bunch of mindless beasts of burden, but beings that, in a sense of all things considered, are not too different from you and I. The film runs for o''ne hundred-and sixty-seven minutes. Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for your attention, and please do enjoy the film."'' **When the film made it's US debut on June 1, at Grauman's Chinese Theater, Patrick Stewart (Tarakada's counterpart for the English dub) said a slightly edited speech: " 'Monsters are born too tall, too strong, too heavy. That is their tragedy.' Those words were spoken by the late, great, director Ishiro Honda in 1956 when filming the classic movie Rodan. When Mr. Honda said those very words, it was a testament to what he wanted to see in his brainchildren. Not your typical, run-of-the-mill, mindless monsters, aliens, cyborgs, and such, but creatures that, much like us, have their own feelings, hopes, dreams, plans, desires and schemes. This film was made not only with the hope of entertaining you and many others the world over, but to also to show all present - and all who shall see - precisely what these creatures really are. Not a bunch of mindless beasts of burden, but beings that, in a sense of all things considered, are not too different from you and me. This film runs for his film runs for one hundred-and sixty-seven minutes. Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for your attention, and please do enjoy the film." *According to the crew, "[Katsumata-san] wanted to make a film as visually satisfying as ''Akira, but also with the air of an epic and the power of Ran and Kagemusha combined''." * The film's ''faux ''title called was ''The 70mm Gamble ''According to Kazuki Omori, it was Norio Wakamoto, (SpaceGodzilla's Japanese dub voice actor) who came up with it, as an apparent satirical reference to the movie being in 70mm and it being a rather expensive venture. * Apart from being the longest, most expensive, and highest-grossing anime film in history, the film has the record for most Oscars won, at 14. ** This was the first Godzilla movie to win Oscars. *'King Ghidorah's last words in the film, which are "I am King Ghidorah." according to Shusuke Kaneko, are a homage to the last words spoken in the landmark 1988 anime film Akira, ''which are "''I am Tetsuo." Interestingly, most critics tend compare this movie to Akira. *Several characters from the TV series are given bigger roles, others had theirs downgraded. *Due to the OVAs being released after the movie, the characters from the OVAs are not featured. * There is an extremely hot and bitter debate among fans over which is better between the movie and the series. * A title card that was shown before the main credits reads "In honor of Tomoyuki Tanaka, Ishiro Honda, Ejii Tsuburaya, Akira Ifukube, Merrian C. Cooper, Edgar Wallace, Ray Harryhausen, and Willis O' Brien - the true masters of monsters." ** Takao Saito, one of the film's cinematographers, died before the movie premiered. Voice actor Seizo Kato also passed away before the movie premiered. As such, a title card reading "''For Takao Saito, and Seizo Kato, to whom the cast and crew are grateful for." ''started the end credit roll. * To aid theaters that couldn't show the film in 70mm, Universal and Paramount bought several 70mm film projectors and distributed it to the main theaters in the US and Japan where the film was shown. For the other territories, the film was shown with LCD projectors. Category:Movies Category:Kaiju Films